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HDS has added a raft of incremental upgrades to its AMS2000 line of mid-range storage arrays.

The standard expansion tray is now accompanied by a high-density tray, a 4U enclosure with 48 drives inside it. The maximum number of drives supported hasn't been raised though, and so array capacity limits are unchanged. HDS has also increased the Fibre Channel connectivity from 4Gbit/s to 8Gbit/s.

For data centres with direct current (DC), HDS has introduced a DC version of the high-end AMS2500 model. This could need less electricity than the standard alternating current model.

The AMS2500DC can be combined with a Cisco MDS 9124 SAN switch to provide a NEBS-compliant SAN. NEBS stands for Network Equipment Building Systems and is a set of guidelines applying to US telecommunication systems.

HDS has also added external authentication to the AMS line, to facilitate the use of multi-factor authentication via Active Directory, LDAP and others. It will be available later this year.

The AMS2000s have also gained Common Criteria Certification. This is an ISO standard (ISO/IEC15408) used by governments and other security-conscious organisations, and should make the AMS line more acceptable to customers using it.

These improvements occur some eight months after the AMS2000 was introduced in October last year and shortly after the addition of thin provisioning last month. They should help keep the AMS' attractiveness at a high level. ®